The AIG bonus problem is not the only way our hard earned tax dollars went to line the pockets of ridiculously wealthy and overpaid people on Wall Street (honestly, doctors should make more simply because a life is more precious than a dividend). The real problem is that Congress and the Dems put in place risky policies, and over the years promised no harm would come from them, only to result in a economic collapse that wiped out $11 trillion dollars of our wealth – more than 50% of our savings and a good junk of our real estate values. It is because Dems pushed risky loans to undeserving people – all in the name of social engineering – that we are now forced to pay these bonuses on Wall Street while we scrape by.

The AIG problem is simply one small example of how the Dems in Congress broke the trust of this nation. They failed to make sure their social engineering projects would be limited to providing a helping hand to those trying to rise up the economic ladder. THEY had the responsibility to ensure their fantasy policies would not get out of control and cause harm, especially to those footing the bill for these social experiments. They fought controls and measurements to make sure their little experiments did not blow up and hurt others.

The liberals in Congress were given the authority to experiment, but they were also given the responsibility to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of all Americans. This means they were required to make sure their little experiments did not run amok and devastate the nation. They failed. They know they failed. They refuse to publicly admit they failed.

The economic collapse that resulted from idiotic liberal policies is no different than any experiment that runs amok and devastates people. If this had been a weapons experiment gone bad, the people who authorized and were responsible for oversight would be paying dearly. There is still such a thing as illegal acts of incompetence. The only difference is the form of the damage done by the experiment gone horribly wrong. In this case it did not kill or maim, it bankrupt a nation of 300 hard working people. 

Since this mess started washing over the country (and now the planet) the Democrats have been trying to deflect their responsibility for it. Yes, there were lots of greedy folks in private industry who jumped into the social experiment with gusto and little concern of risk on their side. However,  dems running these social policy experiments were saying how safe this all was, were resisting controls and reporting that might detect warning signs. There are decades of videos with dems saying all is well, we don’t need to change our experiment. They were wrong.

Yes, the reckless private sector was definitely preying on a whole new batch of consumers who were now available to them to make money off of. But this feeding frenzy was allowed and promoted by liberal policies. Until then, these risky borrowers were out of reach. But the money was flowing to dems and their wealthy allies. The times were grand for those running the experiment.

Until the experiment began to go horribly wrong. It started because more and more of these risky borrowers defaulted. A cascade sequence of errors was about to trigger (something we engineers are very sensitive to and must identify BEFORE we build, so we can make sure they do not trigger – ever). The myriad of unintended consequences not considered or taken seriously by the liberal Dems in Congress began to stack up. Retiring baby boomers began to leave the market, housing sales began to slump and prices drop. The ever lower interest rates became an addiction as people mortgaged themselves to the hilt to keep their drunken spending spree going to lap up luxury items. Inventories for cars and appliances kept pace with the spending spree. Then it all ran out of gas – literally.

Once energy prices spiked (as the liberals want them to so we use less energy and become green) people pulled back on their spending. Inventories began to stack up. Businesses began to cut back. All this time more and more downward pressure was on real estate and prices continued to drop, sales continued to fall, and more and more people fell behind on the mortgage payments. The dominos were all in place and they began to fall. And this is how the social experiments of the Democrats in Congress (initiated years ago) exploded and wiped out much of our hard earned rewards. As a systems analyst it is clear to see, and others who tried to ring warning bells saw it coming too.

Now the liberal Dems are in full cover up, finger pointing mode. All the fake outrage at the private sector people who are NOW trying to make things right (most of the screw ups are gone), and the unconstitutional bills to reap a pound of flesh from a corporation (which they demanded and enticed to play in their social experiment) is not for justice. It is an attempt to hide themselves from the mob.

The Dems know damn well that if America realizes it was their loosening of laws and requirements in lending – laws that had ket this economy growing safely for decades – which were responsible for the havoc there would be pitchfork wielding crowds outside their offices and homes. Those pounds of flesh would be coming out of their hides. So what do they do? How do they save themselves? These scoundrels pointed the angry crowds at innocent, law abiding citizens (name one law anyone at AIG broke?).

As we dig deeper into what transpired it is crystal clear Congress and the Dems knew bonuses had to be paid. They knew almost a year ago this was coming:

In an SEC filing back in May 2008, five months before the federal government took over the company, AIG reported that its ailing financial products division had “established an employee retention plan, which guarantees a broad group of AIGFP’s employees and consultants a minimum level of compensation for each of the 2008 and 2009 compensation years.”

That’s lawyer talk for bonuses.

Then, in November, AIG reported it had agreed to pay $469 million in those “retention awards” to more than 2,000 employees. A March 2 filing said another $492 million was paid out, with a grand total of $1 billion in bonus checks to be cut this year.

The March 15 date to pay the first tranche of retention money may not have been widely known, but they were obviously going to be paid at some point.

The regulatory disclosures did not go entirely unnoticed. In December, CNN, ABC and CNBC all reported on bonuses at AIG. Most of the coverage focused on complaints by Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) who accused AIG of doling out too much and not saying who was getting the money.

Fox News has a video of a  democrat congressman grilling Geithner a month ago with the actual numbers being paid out. Trust me, the bonus news did not just hit the congressman that day. These facts are checked and vetted before a congressman goes public. It was well known everywhere what was going to happen. So how did it blow up in their face?

What we have here is an attempt at cover up and deflection. Those of us who have the fortune (or misfortune) to deal with both the private commercial side and the federal side knew what was coming. We knew that Congress was going to look like crap when it had to keep paying these Wall Street people their obscene salaries. These companies and people make their treasure skimming off the top of the rest of us through special niche laws enacted by their congressional allies. No one knew about all the fantasy paper these companies trade and from which they make their millions. Paper which now threatened to throw the nation and world into economic meltdown. To me these people are parasites who don’t work, just trade in the futures and debt of those who do work. But right now it seems we need these folks to stop a total collapse. The Dems in DC know this too.

The problem the Dems made is they never explained what was going to happen to working (and struggling) America. Obama, Pelosi and Reid did not come out and explain the gory truth about what would have to happen when the Feds took over these companies. They never explained that keeping them solvent required more than cash, that the cash had to go to top people to salvage the company. Without top people the company will fold just as quick as if it had lost all its money.

People tend to run for safety if given the choice. In times of economic troubles why stay with a sinking ship when you have been offered an officer’s position on a healthy new ship? Why dawdle away on the information backbone of a dying AIG when there are companies willing to hire you now and keep you gainfully employed for years? Why trade 5 months of risk for a few years of stability? This was the problem all the bailed out companies faced. The best people can and will move quickly – that is why they are the best. To keep these companies afloat meant key people were going to get paid taxpayer money. Thousands of them.

This is why the bonuses and salaries are paid. Anyone in Congress too dumb not to realize you need the best people at the worst times to fix things should not even be in this debate. The Dems needed to explain this to America. They did not. They chose to try and sneak it through, then feigned ignorance when it blew up (a lie for sure) and then disgustingly tried to aim the backlash at the very people they were trying to keep on board with the bonuses they authorized!

What a bunch of back stabbing, lying fools. Historical fact: it’s never the act that is wrong in DC politics, it is the stupid cover up. The Dems started these social experiments and they lost control of them. These social engineering policies blew up and wiped out half the wealth of this nation. Then, when they tried to halt the damage and stabilize their screw up, they authorized to pay top people from the private sector to come in and help. But they did not have the guts to explain this to the taxpayers (any more than they have the guts to admit it was their social engineering experiments blew up in the first place). 

So when it became public that the private sector was being paid huge sums and bonuses to fix the Dems problems, these modern day Brutuses pretended it was all AIG that was at fault. The Dems better hope that America does not see things as crystal clear as some of us do. Because two things will gel really quick in the American psyche if they do.

First: Iraq was a success and not a failure in halting the growth of al Qaeda and turning the Middle East to a new, democratic path (unlike the failed predictions and claims of the Dems).

Second: Reckless liberal policies did more economic damage to this great nation than al Qaeda did on 9-11, making those spectacularly failed liberal policies more damaging than al Qaeda has ever been to this nation.

Once that crystallizes it is all over for the Democrats.

Tags: AIG, al-Qaeda, Congressional Democrats, Economic Crisis, Obama